'GT5' A Year Away, $100 For "Full" Game?

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is set to release in the US on April 15 and will run you $40. It should serve as a holdover, but it was revealed that the final, full version of GT5 is still over a year away.

Now, Prologue is better than nothing, but that means we'll end up shelling out $100 for the entire GT5 experience.

TechConsumer notes that this could unfortunately lead to a trend of developers releasing partial versions of their games while they work to finish it up.

Let's take a look at this.

How do you feel about paying $40 for a preview of a game that won't be out for another year? Think about this in a general way.

It's decently suited for a game like Gran Turismo because the full version just adds cars, tracks, and other features. Imagine Rockstar releasing Grand Theft Auto IV:Prologue a year before the game comes out. It let's you check out the engine (which might not even be finished) and play the first 10 missions or so.

Would that be a good thing? We realize that something like that probably won't happen, but it's basically what Sony is doing with GT5.

Multiplayer betas are different. Those are useful (and sell copies of Crackdown) for hammering out problems so things work on release day. This is a great way to preview your product before it's ready to ship as well as get useful data on your game.

Would you pay for multiplayer betas? How about if they are bundled with another game like Halo 3/Crackdown? Part of a pre-order bonus like Battlefield: Bad Company or Metal Gear Online?